Parental influence on children in the first 12 years of their lives have a permanent effect. Unfortunately, children come with no user manual. Each child is different from the other. Discuss how to handle emotional and educational needs of your child here.

My mum is a TV addict and we have TV throughout half (half? yes half....coming all) of our lifetimes...

Kind of surprise if there is no TV set at home. Imagine when they go to school and their friends realised that they do not even have a TV set at home (it does not matter if they watch or otherwise). With my family culture, my brother and I still don't fancy TV serial shows very much other than sports.

It all lies down on how we (as parents) educate the children. Recently have subcribe disney channel for the kids, initially they watched a lot until I warn them that I am about to cancel the channel. Now my elder make sure she finished her homework and learn her spelling before watching......she needs to know its only for LEISURE........the same theroy applies for DS nite and PSP....intially was 'hooked' cos' its something new.....after a while, not so...now collecting dust!

Anyway daddy cannot do without his football.....and recently golf!!

But of course, have a relative who does not watch TV at all. Their 2 kids topped the class and have rec'd scholarship to further studies.......Now doing ...... extremely well.......in career

Actually my hubby knows a friend too who has no TV at home at all and he is their top physics student in school and of course, received scholarship and stuff... which started us wondering if we should do the same for the children.

And we know of people who digs themselves in books and watches no TV (though has a TV at home), and they top the class each year, receiving first class honors too...

But those were the days, back in the 1990s. So I wonder if there are families now still do the same?

Hmmm, i heard they totally have no TV, just music. I am not sure whether they have a TV set at home.

But yes, I know those kids who totally have no contacts with TV really does well but it is impossible in my family.......cos my hubby loves TV...if he's at home, the TV will be on and the kids will start to remember cartoons, disney...etc....not forgetting my mum, who is the caregiver!

I remember when he is outstation, the bills only comes up to 60 dollars compared to the 100! Cos totally no TV for my kids. If you can succeed without TV, all the best! I totally understand your well being for your kids.

The problem that we have now is that we as parents, tend to scold the boys when we are engrossed by some TV program that we are watching.

I understand how you feel. I used to have my favourite series disturbed too & I ended scolding my kids. I don't watch tv these days. But my advise is, you can still watch tv after the kids gone to sleep.

Winth wrote

And I don't know what program he's watching in KidsCentral in the weekdays

There are times that I am cross enough that I take away their liberty of watching tv during weekdays when I'm off at work. I just pull out the plug and put them in a discrete place. There are also tv that you can set timer or lock the system so the kids are not able to on the tv during those hours.

There is a saying "Picture tells a thousand words". I have a son who is very interested in the current affairs. Reading the plights on some African continents will not be the same as watching it live on tv. Reading a natural disaster from a book will not be the same as watching it live in tv how tsunami, earthquake, tornado affects the earth.

Have u seen the movie Gremlins before? In one part the cute, cuddly creature was watching TV (unsupervised) and later it multiplied into nasty characters from the movies it had seen. :!: Same may turn out for kids.

If you throw away the TV, your kid could be the next PM or become some poor soul that don't know what's his/her peers are talking about.

1.5 years ago, we kind of banned the TV and watched much much less TV. Since then, my sons started to read more books and play more among themselves in their free time, which is a better use of time. Early this year, we replaced the old TV with a 42" TV due to its irresistably cheap price. It was a good buy, cos it comes with a child-lock password and now I can watch the news whenever I want to. The bigger screen also make watching DVDs on nature, discoveries, histories, etc more interesting and easier on the eyes. We watched only stuffs that are worth watching, not trashy productions, because when we watch TV, we like our children to join us too.